Resources vs. Refugees

Throughout our class presentations the past two classes I've been listening to a large trend: these Middle East/North African countries are struggling with resource management, and the refugee crisis that is going on. While not every group talked about refugees, I saw that theme throughout the presentations. For the levant region it is especially true, show largely through Lebanon and Jordan. These countries are struggling to keep their government running the country well as well as struggling to help refugees that have had to flee their homes. 

When first thinking about it, Lebanon has it the worse out of the countries in our region (Middle East/North Africa), and especially worse out of the countries in the levant (other than Syria, which has very obvious problems). Lebanon is without a president, has such a wide diversity of religious culture, and such a large resource problem, as well as a great influx of refugees to their country. With a starting population of 4 million before refugees, that has increased to 5 million, meaning almost a fifth of their population is refugee now. The trash problem in Lebanon is causing serious harm to both the environment and the citizens of Lebanon, as well as the tourism industry. Along with the Beirut bombing and the terrorism going on in Lebanon, their tourism industry has taken a huge hit, which stresses the resources/government problem even more. 

In Jordan, the government is struggling to give their citizens fresh drinking water and infrastructure to go about daily life in a healthy way. Their problems are not as catastrophic as Lebanon, but the economy and workforce in Jordan are seeing hit after hit, which is also stressed by the refugee population they have taken in over the past four years. 

To combat this, international funding should be made available for these countries and countries like it. With such a large amount of refugees, the international community cannot afford for these countries to go through such a large financial or resource crisis that they have to dispel refugees. The international community should also be giving aid to the governments of these countries to fund refugees in order to keep them safe and healthy while they are in country.